At Ceres, we’re drawn to films that explore the relationships behind our food. Behind what we eat. Through the Ceres Collection, we are creating a growing home for films that deserve a longer life - stories that can be watched from anywhere, at any time.
Dear Friends,
We’re excited to share the newest film in the Ceres Collection: One of a Kind, directed by Belgian filmmaker Jonas Buysens (Runtime: 8 mins).
Jonas first came across Antoine in an article: a retired artisan making knives for some of the world’s best Michelin-starred kitchens, working out of a garden shed. He made a curious phone call. That call turned into long afternoons of conversation that led to the making of One of a Kind.
Want a taste first? Watch the trailer.
Film Synopsis
In a dimly lit workshop tucked into his garden, Antoine, a retired artisan, shapes knives by hand from materials most people would have thrown away. One of a Kind follows the making of a single blade, from a cobwebbed shed to the pass of Kobe Desramault’s Michelin-starred kitchen, where the chef awaits the reveal of a tool built to elevate every plate it touches. What emerges is a quiet portrait of mastery and second lives. Proof that something used before can still belong where nothing short of perfection will do. A short documentary about craft, trust, and the beauty hiding in the overlooked.
Why We Chose This Film
The artisanal creation of unique things, whether food or metal craft, is a thrilling endeavor. This film enters that thrilling world of knife making and cooking.
- Ceres juror and former White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses
One of a Kind is slow and meditative, beautifully shot, and almost entirely focused on the pleasure of watching someone who has spent decades mastering a craft at work.
We were also drawn to Antoine’s solitary work, in the company of nature, repurposing discarded steel and wood into items that end up in a very fancy kitchen. It’s a pleasure to see the quiet dedication to making and perfecting one item at a time, and later, the encounter between these two different forms of craft at the table.
The Ceres Collection is one of the ways we continue our commitment to filmmakers and audiences beyond the festival itself. By bringing these films to our YouTube channel, we hope to make meaningful storytelling more accessible and create opportunities for ongoing learning, reflection, and dialogue.
Watch One of a Kind, explore the other films in the Ceres Collection, and stay tuned as more films are released throughout the year.
Warmest,
Maayan and the Ceres Team
P.S. A Look Back at Tomatoes, Spirits, and Cinema 🍅
Last Monday, we explored food waste through film, conversation, and, of course, by eating and drinking, within the beautiful community space of Farm.One.
We’re grateful to our filmmakers for sharing their work; to Wen-Jay Ying for creating the beautiful food we shared; to Joe McDowell for distilling a tomato spirit just for the evening; and to Jerusha Klemperer for guiding the conversation with so much ease and depth.
Photos + Panel
Watch the full panel conversation →
More
The evening introduced us to many different approaches to rethinking food waste. Here are a few organizations brought up in the conversation that we wanted to share, and an extra one from our team:
Afterlife Ag
Makes it easier for restaurants and other food establishments to upcycle food scraps, transforming them into fresh, locally grown mushrooms.Reclamation Foods
Makes Korean-style bone broths that support regenerative agriculture and whole-animal nourishment.Matriark Foods
Upcycles farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into food for food service, retail, and emergency food.Maine Garum Co.
Makes fish sauce using underutilized seafood, including invasive species such as green crab (Ceres!)
Director’s Statement - One of a Kind
I first came across Antoine in an article: a retired man making knives for some of the world’s best Michelin-starred kitchens, working out of a garden shed. I couldn’t leave it there. A curious phone call turned into long afternoons of conversation, and the more I listened, the more I realised the knives were only the surface of the story.
What pulled me in was the duality of it all. Antoine builds objects of real beauty in a shed full of cobwebs, out of materials most people would have thrown away. Then those same objects end up on the tables of the finest restaurants in the world, where guests pay hundreds of euros for a single meal shaped, in part, by his hands. That contrast, the humble workshop and the rarefied dining room, the discarded and the treasured, felt like something worth sitting with.
Antoine himself is a character: a craftsman with deeply rooted values, and a bit of a rebel, and the chefs he works with know it. That stubbornness is exactly what makes those relationships so special. There’s a trust there that can’t be manufactured. Filming him, I kept thinking this is what mastery actually looks like. Not polish or branding, but decades of care poured into doing one thing properly.
More than anything, I hope his story opens up a conversation about circularity and what we choose to value. Just because something has been used before doesn’t mean its life is over. Antoine proves it again and again: his “second-hand” materials find a home in places where the entire experience is meant to be flawless. There’s a quiet argument about sustainability, yes, but also about worth, and how easily we write things off.
If audiences take one thing from the film, I’d love it to be that small shift in how they see what’s around them, the possibility hiding in the overlooked. And, selfishly, I hope that one day I get to share a meal with Antoine and Kobe, and taste the full experience their two crafts create together.
- Jonas Buysens